She has years of experience in the fashion industry, but designer and entrepreneur Kalyani Chawla is comparatively new to the world of interior design. Yet she sees plenty of scope in this arena, particularly because “Indians are dedicated gifters.”
This propensity of her target clientelle is the only thing that ties her collection together. Beyond that, her creations are as wide-ranging as detailed idols of the infant God Krishna and sleek, sturdy ice boxes, all in silver.
“I have a small workshop in Okhla (a suburb in Delhi). These are some of the best skilled craftsmen in the silverware business. I’m very fortunate to be working with them: there’s so much to learn!” and just like that, the designer dives right into the technicalities of a metal-working method called chasing. It is fine work with a heavy tool, and the end result is an object sunken low to leave delicate, patterned ridges along the surface.
As she explains, Kalyani points out examples of the technique in some of the samples kept on the table: intricate bowls, metallic ice boxes, delicate flowers topped with semi-precious stones.
Despite their creator sitting amid them and explaining the process, it is difficult to imagine any of these specimens being the work of a tough hammer on a sheet — it always begins with a sheet, “a massive, plain sheet of metal,” she says. The only exception is an imposingly large champagne bowl in dual tones: silvery on the outside and a copper-like tint on the inside, its sheer size helps reconcile Kalyani’s descriptions of craftsmanship with the final product on the table.
“It’s almost archaic, the way the craftsmen turn these sheets into a bowl or a plate or a box... whatever you see, it’s all been hammered into that particular shape. The precision involved is staggering. I learn from them everyday.”
It took Kalyani six months to bring her collection to fruition, from conceptualising them in her mind to seeing them perched proudly on studio shelves. Interior design is the latest feather in her cap, after art and fashion design. “I have no technical knowledge,” she says, “I had zero idea when I took this on, like everything else that I have tried in my life. But I learn everyday, I sponge in information.”
The result of her efforts is an array of silver items, studded with semi-precious stones of different hues. “Some are made of silver, while others have a different base metal and are plated with silver. It depends on the item’s usage,” she says.
Beyond the glittering displays on the first floor of Evoluzione, is an inner room that houses even more objects in the kind of chaotic order that is usually reserved for a household preparing for a wedding. Here, amid cartons of packaging material and sheafs of important-looking paperwork, lies a tray with a broad, flat rim, on which is perched a delicate dragonfly with every detail of its structure visible in relief. Beside it stands a sturdy creature that looks like it has nothing to do with the rest of the collection: a jaguar with gleaming silver skin, each muscle taut in a direct corelation to its stance.
“Think of anything you might want to gift something,” says Kalyani with a smile, “I have it all.”
